Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s comment following trilateral talks with Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov and Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan, Moscow, July 25, 2023

Good afternoon.

Today we have held constructive talks with our colleagues, Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov and Foreign Minister of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan.

First, we had two rounds of bilateral Russia-Azerbaijan and Russia-Armenia talks. We discussed bilateral relations and further steps to implement the agreements reached at the summit level. After that, we held a trilateral meeting on the regional agenda, primarily the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh and around it.

We presented Russia’s views based on the reports made by the Russian peacekeepers in Nagorno-Karabakh and we set out the measures that should be taken without delay to supply people in Karabakh with food, medicines and basic necessities, and to ensure uninterrupted electricity and gas supply in the interests of the public, the Armenians, and [other] people who live in that region.

Since the trilateral statement on November 9, 2020, Russia, as the main intermediary of the peace process, has been working towards an early settlement of the crisis in full compliance with the trilateral statements made by the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

We also discussed a major provision of these agreements, namely the freedom of movement and the unblocking of transport and economic links in the region.

We highlighted delimitation issues, which are closely connected with the entire range of issues on our agenda, and related to the signing of a peace treaty between Baku and Yerevan as soon as possible.

We hope that this large-scale negotiating process will culminate in the signing of such a treaty, which will crown the efforts of Armenians and Azerbaijanis launched during the trilateral meetings with President Vladimir Putin.

It is an uphill path. There are many important and complicated issues to be addressed. The most sensitive of them has been and remains the issue of rights and safety guarantees for Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh in the context of ensuring the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan under the 1991 Declaration signed by the leaders of the former Soviet republics in Almaty. Its viability has been confirmed by the Azerbaijani and Armenian authorities today. This is the basis for working on the peace treaty.

Armenia is aware of the importance of convincing Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians to hold meetings with Azerbaijani representatives as soon as possible to coordinate their rights under the relevant legislation and Azerbaijan’s international commitments, including numerous conventions on the rights of national minorities.

Azerbaijan, acting on a mutually agreed basis, is also ready to provide the same guarantees to persons residing on its territory. Armenia is ready to act likewise regarding the application of these conventions to people residing in the Republic of Armenia.

These are far from simple matters. I hope that the discussions we have had today will give a positive impetus to negotiations in this and other areas. The closest we can come at this stage is an agreement on the trilateral working group, to be chaired by three deputy prime ministers who will coordinate the practical aspects of unblocking transport links in the region. This will open the door to the implementation of transportation projects not only on the regional but also on a broader scale.

We have agreed to work towards the resumption of our dialogue on the second track, that is, between civil society representatives and political experts. We also hope that a trilateral dialogue will be launched between our parliaments, as we proposed today.

We believe that negotiations will continue. We are aware of the interest of both Armenia and Azerbaijan in using not only Russia but also other intermediaries. We would welcome the involvement of those who really want to help Baku and Yerevan come to an agreement and who are working towards this just like we are. However, there must be no attempts to solicit any agreements that will run contrary to the interests of the Armenian or Azerbaijani people, agreements that could look fine in the media but are based on geopolitical or internal political considerations.

Our colleagues have expressed gratitude for this initiative. We will continue to work energetically to prepare further meetings. In particular, there are plans for a summit meeting of the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia this year.

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